8 



Management of Sheep. 



The Hampshire Downs were originally very large and coarse, 

 but of late years they have been improved by an admixture of the 

 Sussex Down ; still, however, they retain an extra degree of size, 

 bone, and fleece to any other, and are easily distinguished by 

 those characteristics. Breeders who prefer strong sheep consider 

 this variety better than any other for enduring hardship and for 

 general purposes. 



The Norfolk Downs were distinguished from the others by their 

 dark or black faces ; they were found chiefly in Norfolk and 

 Suffolk, where folding was much practised; but, by the intro- 

 duction of the Sussex Down by the late Earl of Leicester, the 

 Norfolk Downs have been in a great degree supplanted. His 

 lordship took considerable interest in exposing them by the test 

 of experiments with the Sussex. The few that remain are found 

 upon the borders of Norfolk and Suffolk ; the old Norfolks are 

 also nearly extinct. 



The Sussex breeders, in setting their flocks, adopt the uni- 

 versal plan of selecting those ewes which possess the established 



Southdown " qualities of colour, uniformity of character, light- 

 ness of offals, thick of lean flesh, and propensity to fatten, with 

 beautiful fine wool. The Hampshire breeders prefer and select 

 a much stronger cast of animal throughout. Many breeders who 

 followed in the footsteps of the late Mr. Ellman, having noticed the 

 result of his experience in remodelling the animal, and increased 

 propensity to fatten, carried these views too far, and the animal 

 was becoming too refined ; but subsequently attention has been 

 paid to the essentials of size and constitution, from which much 

 good has resulted. The early management of these flocks up to, 

 and during, the lambing season is very similar to that of the 

 Leicester breeders ; the principal difference is in their favour, 

 they being more hardy during lambing-time, and less loss is ex- 

 perienced amongst the lambs : the circumstance of these sheep 

 being raised specially for the downs, heaths, and thin arable soils 

 in the southern counties attached a degree of importance to their 

 after-management, they being more or less dependent upon the 

 scanty produce of the downs, unless provision be made to supply 

 other food throughout the year. In these situations they are sent 

 regularly to fold, with the exception of those put out for fattening. 

 It was originally the plan to keep the wether sheep with the 

 general flock, and allow them to go to fold until drafted for the 

 London market ; more recently they have been divided, and fed 

 at a much earlier age, — many are fatted at the age of sixteen or 

 eighteen months. With some breeders, who have good meadows 

 and other advantages, the ewes and lambs are not allowed to go 

 to fold, their system being to force their lambs forward for the 

 September fairs, when they fetch exceedingly high prices ; others 



